Mariano Rajoy fails to break Spanish political deadlock

MADRID — Mariano Rajoy lost his investiture vote in the Spanish Congress on Friday, prolonging an eight-month political paralysis and pushing Spain ever closer to a third general election in just over a year.

In four decades of democracy, only one previous candidate has failed to secure investiture in parliament — Rajoy’s Socialist rival Pedro Sánchez, who attempted to form a government three months after December’s inconclusive election. Rajoy said Sánchez’s “shameful desire” for a third election — which could fall on Christmas Day — was behind his refusal to facilitate a coalition deal between the incumbent conservatives and the centrist Ciudadanos.

“The situation can be summarized as the PSOE rejecting the only government that is viable” — Mariano Rajoy

Acting prime minister Rajoy’s Popular Party lost Friday’s vote — the second this week — by 10 votes, with the PP, Albert Rivera’s Ciudadanos and a single-seat party from the Canary Islands losing to Sánchez’s PSOE, the far-left Unidos Podemos and regional parties from the Basque Country and Catalonia.

The defeat was a foregone conclusion, and Rajoy warned in the debate that Spain would pay a high price.

“The situation can be summarized as the PSOE rejecting the only government that is viable,” said Rajoy.

Sánchez justified his refusal to enable a second term for Rajoy by accusing the PP of fomenting corruption, inequality and the territorial tensions that are pushing the Catalans towards separation from Spain.

“How is it that you are the PM with the lowest approval rating in democracy?” he asked Rajoy.

The Socialist leader’s talk of “political forces of change” and his appeal for “generosity” to find a way out of the impasse gave rise to speculation that Sánchez, who came second in December and in June’s repeat election, will make his own attempt to form a ruling coalition, before a third vote in December comes inevitable.

“Forces of change” has been his shorthand for the PSOE, Podemos and Ciudadanos — the three-way coalition deal he tried in vain to put together in March. Having a stab at forming a government may also be Sánchez’s way of avoiding being blamed by the public for forcing the country to a third ballot.

Unruly Spain

Current electoral rules dictate that this would happen on December 25 if nobody finds a way of securing the prime ministership by October 31. However, the PSOE’s complaints that scheduling the vote for Christmas Day was “blackmail,” and public outcry, prompted the Popular Party to agree the date was not ideal, hinting that it could be moved forward a few days.

By that stage, Spain will have been without a proper government for over a year, with no ability to legislate or make policy. With the economy still reeling from the 2008-2013 recession which put one in four members of the labor force out of work, the PP and PSOE plagued by corruption cases, and cutbacks in public services like health and education, the two-party system that has dominated Spain and guaranteed stability since the late 1970s is facing a crisis of credibility.

“They don’t mind — as long as the citizens blame the PSOE” — José Ramón Caso, political consultant

That has created an opportunity for two upstart parties, Pablo Iglesias’ Podemos which was founded in 2014 and Albert Rivera’s business-friendly Ciudadanos, which started a decade ago as a regional party in Catalonia, to fragment the political system.

To make things more complicated, Catalan forces, who in the past cooperated with Left and Right to form coalitions at the national level, have embarked on a plan for secession from Spain. They now demand approval of a referendum for independence as a condition for coalition support — something neither the PP nor the PSOE are prepared to do.

Friday’s investiture debate in Congress illustrated why Spain has become so hard to rule: the Catalans demanded a referendum; Podemos dared the PSOE to join them in supporting a leftist coalition with the help of pro-independence forces; and Ciudadanos tried in vain to get the PP and the Socialists to reach an understanding in the national interest.

“It’s a complicated situation where you have party, leadership and territorial motivations,” said political consultant José Ramón Caso, adding that the Popular Party’s internal studies estimated the likelihood of a third election at 90 percent.

“And they don’t mind — as long as the citizens blame the PSOE,” Caso said.

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It is truly bizarre that Sanchez would think a third poll would be good for him. His support went down in the second poll while PP’s support went up. Most likely his voter will go down even more and he might end up behind Podemos.

Posted on 9/3/16 | 3:14 AM CET

Paqui

@Heidelberg
Not only Mr Sanchez wont get a benefit from a third poll. Noone in Spain will vote again. As a Spaniard I am aware of our, lets say lazyness, which actually means sickness of not having real politicians . Only the extremist will voye, which will make Spanish politics even more complicated.

Posted on 9/3/16 | 5:43 AM CET

Basque_Spaniards

The guilty is rajoy. He had a way to form a government but instead he decided to do a fast investiture vote.
Rajoy in two weeks achieved the support of two parties arriving to 170. Only needed 6 votes more but he decided to accelerate the debate instead to assure the 6 votes.
In 1996, Aznar asked for two months of negotiations with 3 small parties. After 62 days of serious coalition talks he achieved arriving to 183 votes, I mean, 7 votes more than he needed.
The PNB with 5 votes has said: ” If you really want our votes, we demand you a serious coalition talks”. However, Rajoy didnt want to deal with them.
In contrast, he chose to pressure socialists.
I think that if Rajoy had wanted to form a government he would have needed, at least, two months and not two weeks. A government is a serious thing and is not a pressure to socialists to let govern.
I assure you that if rajoy had called socialists with 175 votes the answer will have been different because the canarian allíed with socialists will be pressured to deal with rajoy. The canarian mep will accept to deal with him with a very easy negotía tiene because his other canarian party had agreed before.
So, assuring the 176 the debate will have been different becoming prime minister. However, rajoy chose the easy and fast way provoking his defeat.